246 



TIlACHYPTEPtUS. 



Thk body lengthened, very thin, naked; eye lateral, cleft of the mouth 

 small. Dorsal fin long, with a partially separate and elevated portion 

 in front. No anal fin; ventral fins on the throat, well developed; tail 

 out of the lengthened direction, of the body. 



DEALFISH. 



Vaagmdr, Loudon; Magazine of ^Natural History, vol. 



iv, p. 215, the figure by Dr. Fleming, copied 

 by Mr. Yarrell, 1st. ed., vol. i, p. 191, but 

 rejected for another, 2ud. ed., vol. i, p. "210. 



Gipnnetrns ardicus, Jenyns; Manual, p. 372. 



TracliD])terus ardicus, Guxther; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 395. 



The Dealfish finds its home in the icy portion of the northern 

 ocean, and probably in its deepest recesses; from which it emerges 

 only on rare occasions, when it visits or is thrown on the shores 

 of Iceland, Norway, and Finhand; and our knowledge of it in 

 the first place is due to the inhabitants of the country first 

 named. But the substance of this fish, as of some others of this 

 family, is so tender and brittle, that examples have rarely been 

 secured in a perfect condition, for which reason a great degree 

 of obscurity remained for a long time on some of its characters; 

 and it is only within a few years that a definite description 

 and correct representation of its shape have been obtained; so 

 as to decide in what genus of the Ribband fishes it ought to 

 be placed. 



Its claim to be considered a British fish was first rendered 

 certain by Dr. Fleming, on the authority of a specimen which 

 was sent to him from the island of Sanday — one of the Orkney 

 group; where it was cavight alive, and where two or three ex- 

 amples had been seen within a short space of time. The specimen 

 examined was three feet in length, but by the time it had reached 

 Dr. Fleming, it had become so injured and broken that the 

 figure drawn from it bears little likeness to what we now know 



f 



